Las Vegas Gaming Revenue Still On Downward Trend

As described in earlier posts, here and here, Nevada and the gambling industry are not recession-proof. The gaming win has been declining, but in October the decline was huge. Really huge. October gaming win in Las Vegas was down 26% from the previous year. Nevada overall was down 22% from a year earlier. The link to the Reuters article is here.

With the housing crisis and higher gasoline prices, people aren't spending their cash heading to Las Vegas. Gas prices have abated a great deal, but the damage to the economy has been done. With the housing crisis not nearly over, and with the US Government printing tons of money to keep the economy going, this is going to get worse before it gets better.

The excessive bailouts will, when the economy stablilizes, spur a large spike in inflation. Too much money after too few goods. We're quite possibly going to do a replay of the late 1970s -- not a good time for the economy, working class and retirees. Everything will get more expensive, but those groups won't be able to adjust their incomes sufficiently to compensate. They are going to get squeezed.

And it is exactly those groups that Las Vegas needs to get back on track. I don't envision that happening anytime soon. Perhaps for a short rebound, but when inflation kicks in, that rebound will vanish. For those economy watchers, keep alert to signs of inflation when the bailout money impacts the economy and the high-water mark of the mortgage crisis occurs, and begins to diminish.